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Berlin (AFP) – German exports recovered by 1.6% over one month in August, driven by a surge in sales to the United States, despite the energy crisis which weighs on the trade surplus, according to official figures published on Wednesday.
In total, the largest European economy exported 133.1 billion euros worth of goods, in data adjusted for seasonal and calendar variations, the Destatis institute said in a press release.
The rise in this indicator, closely followed in Germany, in August constitutes a rebound, following a fall of 2.1% in July.
It is in line with what was expected by financial analysts from Factset, who expected an increase of 1.5%.
Over one year, exports climbed 18.1%, according to Destatis.
This increase is particularly driven by the explosion in sales of German products in the United States, which increased by 12% over one month.
Exports to China, another key customer of German industry, also increased by 2.9%, to 9.2 billion euros.
On the contrary, sales to EU countries are marking time: member countries have absorbed 72.8 billion euros worth of German products, down 0.8%.
Despite this recovery in exports, the German trade balance is considerably reduced, to 1.2 billion euros once morest 5.4 billion euros in July.
“The war in Ukraine achieves what nothing else had achieved before: eliminating the famous German trade surplus”, comments Carsten Brzeski, for ING bank.
The conflict led to a halt in Russian gas deliveries to Germany, which before the conflict was 55% dependent on Moscow for its imports.
The resulting spike in energy prices pushed up the cost of German imports to 131.9 billion euros, up 33.3% year on year.
The German economy should experience, due to this crisis, a decline in its GDP of 0.4% in 2023, according to the main economic institutes of the country.
© 2022 AFP
